1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to the production of vapors and more particularly to the production of vapors of metals in an enclosure. The invention herein described was made in the course of or under a contract or subcontract thereunder, with the Department of the Navy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various devices have been utilized in the past to produce metal vapor. Typically, an enclosure is constructed of a material that is both mechanically and chemically stable at the evaporation temperature of the metal from which the vapor is to be produced and is wrapped with means which provide sufficient energy internal to the enclosure to vaporize the solid or liquid metal contained therein. Obviously, the enclosure material must be chemically nonreactive with respect to the metal and also must be able to satisfy the containment requirements at the evaporation temperature of the metal. Thus, the number of metals which can be readily vaporized in this manner is severely limited because the evaporation temperature of many metals is so high. Further, since the prior art systems involve heating the entire enclosure to the evaporation temperature of the metal, the radiative heat losses from the system are very large.